Exchange Student and World Traveler, Ayaka Sakurai
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Countries that Ayaka has been to America, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, France, England, Italy, Australia, Korea, China, and Malaysia!
Connect with Ayaka Sakurai!
Traveling from Japan to the United States to become an exchange student, she was scared to meet new people due to the language barrier. The experience helped her dive deeper into her interests of traveling and getting to know more cultures from all around the world.
I got to spend a school year with Ayaka, becoming and remaining a friend of Ayaka’s has been a great experience! Getting to learn about other cultures has always been a huge draw for me, more so than getting to travel to see sights.
Episode 42
Transcription
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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire
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you
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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who is living their dreams
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welcome to the dreamers podcast I’m your
host Joe Pardo and today I have the
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pleasure of interviewing my friend ayaka
soccer I who is living her dream by
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traveling all over the world
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welcome to the show yaka hi Joe ok
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did that just for the people who don’t
know you’re coming to me live from Japan
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that’s pretty cool i mean it’s it’s not
that early here but it’s it’s getting
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late there
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well why don’t you start by giving some
background about yourself
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I’m yosakoi from japan i was born in
1986 so I’m 20 years old I was grew up
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in Japan and when I was high school
student
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I mean Softsoap more its sophomore i
went to America for X as exchange
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student for one year after that I came
back
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I’m still living in Japan yes so I’m
right now in Japan but you’ve had a lot
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of adventures since then
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yes I 80 countries have you been to I’ve
been to of course America Canada make
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school korea-china em Singapore Thailand
Malaysia Australia New Zealand England
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friends Italy that’s all good
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that’s quite of quite a bit as a yes but
still I want to go to I want to go to
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many countries so what does traveling
mean to you for me
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traveling is to know get other culture
it’s like for me study i really enjoy
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knowing new culture like a special
language engage and their food and their
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clothing
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yes so I really enjoyed to see you
cultures so what what inspires you i
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really enjoy talking with other cultures
people i mean for it with Florida’s and
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even we don’t know like japanese or
their language or maybe English we still
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try to talk and when we can contact with
two other I feel so happy
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and that’s inspires me to visit other
country do you speak any other languages
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other than english and japanese a tiny
tiny beat or korean and chinese because
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i used to have korean chinese boyfriend
haha that’s like huh you lived over in
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China for a while didn’t you
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well just only one month for language
camp ok I thought it was longer than
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that
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no just one month so how did your dream
of traveling the world come about well I
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never thought about it I just really
enjoy to talking with other country
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people and exchange you know they’re
called culture and my culture so I just
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country that where I’ve never been to
and I just is it and just enjoy talking
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with the local people so I think that
made me to go to other country
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my mom was really like to go to tribal
traveling and it first
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she took me to Hawaii first time and I
really enjoyed hawaii and like talking
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with you I couldn’t speak any English
but still I really enjoy to see new
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culture and that made me so interested
into traveling all over the world
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you said how your mom felt about you
traveling how did the rest of your
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family feel about your traveling oh well
my father likes it but he didn’t love it
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ok so he he little lobster been here
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well first time when we went to Hawaii
he doesn’t want to go to Hawaii but you
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know we are my phone my mom made him to
go because it’s family trip so he wasn’t
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that happy and my mother was so small
that time so I think he just enjoyed and
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I think I’m the only one who really
enjoyed that traveling yes it was when I
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was it was my elementary school first
start first grade so it’s really long
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long time ago
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let’s start with your education and when
you came to America as an exchange
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student
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what steps did you take the make that
happen well there’s our real good
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attention to where you know they do
paper works for exchange student and i
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applied to that organization and they
gave me a test and they thought I can go
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to America so they told me you can go to
America for us an exchange student one
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year so that’s what I get to go to
America when you got to America
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what kind of issues did you run into oh
well my mom was not a she didn’t worry
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at all because she’s so excited that I’m
going to America but only thing is my
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father was so he doesn’t understand me
why I’m going to America that he thought
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I don’t need to go to America and she
told he told me was America is so
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dangerous country like everyone has gone
so you shouldn’t go then just stay in
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Japan that’s he told me so it was really
difficult for me to you know to make him
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say yes was difficult part
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I told me I really want to go and I just
keeps talk telling him i really want to
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go to America then he finally said yes
but he seemed to not a happy actually
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but still she said yes so once you’ve
got to America
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what kind of problems did you run into
English of course english english yes
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well my English was so I mean so I don’t
speak good English but I couldn’t speak
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English at all at all when i went to
America so I couldn’t read any textbook
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which we we are using for classes so I
still remember my English teacher mr.
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shara she gave me I’ll she gave gave me
a list of books she is going to use
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whole semester and she suggests me to
prepare japanese one so I asked my mom
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to send me a japanese book that which we
are going to use it for english classes
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so that really helped me to study my
English class
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mrs. so in English what’s my program did
you have the dummy did you find yourself
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kind of lonely being in a whole nother
country all by yourself
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oh well I was staying with my host
family but they are really nice but you
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know there are no my real family was I
got used to them
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I don’t feel any loneliness but until
then I feel very lonely
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actually i did i was there anything
special that you did to get used to them
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like to not be lonely with them i tried
to understand Dale their life life
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because my family’s life and their
families life is completely different
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so I just tried to accept but it was
really difficult for me it was two
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different for me
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so yeah that’s why I felt lonely
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yes the first couple months but once I
got used to i really enjoyed living with
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other family
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so do you have a favorite memory from
all your travels over or if you want to
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do one memory from your time in America
as an exchange in and and another memory
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from the rest of your travels my memory
in America I really love to talk my
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memory in America even now it’s been
like it’s been 12 years since i left
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America but i still really thankful to
you guys my friends in America and my
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teachers especially my english class
teacher mr. Shara and my American
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history class teacher miss my kitty and
all of course my host family if I was
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really having a hard time to adjust
America life especially you know it’s
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completely different life from my where
I grew up and I don’t know how to
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describe it was really hard and
difficult and especially I don’t know
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what you guys a first time I didn’t know
what your guys are talking and I don’t
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know how to make friends because you
know I couldn’t speak in English and I
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don’t know how to speak so it was really
difficult but you guys never
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give up me if I mean you guys are so
patient
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that’s why I you know you helped me a
lot to improve my English and to adjust
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life in America I really really
appreciate with you guys and I was so
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lucky that my friends my family hospital
only and my teacher are so supportive to
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me even now really appreciate and I
really feel I was really lucky guard
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that I could be a student in kingsway ok
so that’s my memories
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it’s not like specific memory but hole
through one year you really appreciate
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with you guys is there any parts of your
traveling that hasn’t quite worked out
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for you yet
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well mmm lot right now i don’t think i
do have I don’t I don’t
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every country i went to always like he
turned to be that I wanted to travel
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with so i’m satisfied right now I’m
satisfied with what I trouble
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so what are your dreams for the future
look like it’s trying to tell you I mean
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well i’m 28 years 8 years old I nights
i’m going to be 30 and I’m getting old
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but still I want challenge to be a
japanese teacher to teach Japanese for
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foreigners not for japanese student or
foreigners student because after I came
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back from America i started Japanese
culture like kimono our traditional
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clothing and I keep playing
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Cotto and chamois sin which is a
Japanese traditional instrument and also
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I think Japanese one of beautiful
languages so i want tell to other
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country people that how Japanese
cultures are beautiful and wonderful so
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that’s why I wanted to be a japanese
teacher so now I’m learning I’m taking
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classes so i’m now taking online classes
of to be a japanese teacher
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wow that we now would that be a
full-time job
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I well now it’s only part-time job so
it’s difficult to work as a japanese
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teacher in Japan because you need a
full-time job
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it’s only part-time job it’s not only
but a lot of cases they are a part time
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job now if I study keep studying i can
teach any time so that’s why I’m
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learning right now if I have a license
to teach Japanese i can work too
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I mean I can work in all over the world
you know
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good so that’s what i want to do in the
future to be a japanese teacher I really
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want to challenge that
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oh I mean that’s great that you want it
you’re not just wanting to do it but
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you’re you’re taking the initiative
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yes to do it to make that work
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so is there any last thoughts you’d like
to share well I just want to tell you
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guys how much I appreciate with you and
thank you thank you for giving me such a
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wonderful experience to me I could have
such a wonderful experience because of
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you guys think you think you think you
so that’s well it’s not a share but
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that’s what i want to tell to my friends
and my teachers and i really recommend
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you guys to go to study abroad for one
year because it it’s really the memory
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of there will be your treasure so that’s
what I wanted to say
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yeah well you’re very welcome it was
awesome getting-to-know-you over the
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course of the year which was in 2002 and
mrs. for shara the teacher that you
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mentioned she was on the show back on
episode yes yes
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actually she told me that and she found
me on facebook because of your podcast
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so thank you no problem i was so happy
to see her again so thanks
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okay do you have a well any websites
your facebook or twitter account that
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you you updated with your travels
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I only
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have facebook oh yeah that’s not right
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yes that’s my facebook account
incredibly JK i will put that in the
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internet I don’t think you got a problem
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well thank you so much for being up and
i’m glad i was able to wake up
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oh thank you don’t to have you on the
show I really appreciate it and it was
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great talking to you and I’d like to
have you on again in in like a year or
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so and we’ll follow up
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actually maybe in September when you
come down for the high school reunion
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yes I’m coming and thank you for
offering me to place to stay on
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no problem so maybe we can talk on that
on the instep temporary yeah yeah
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definitely that was all before then get
oh well thank you again for coming on
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the show yaka oh thank you but I am so
sorry for my bad english I am so sorry i
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have to i need to study English again
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well you haven’t lived in American a
long time and I don’t think it’s bad at
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all
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oh thank you you flatter me
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thanks okay thank you for joining us for
this episode of the dreamers podcast
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follow us on twitter and dreamers
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a guest on the dreamers podcast please
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podcast is copyright 2014 by j parr .
code
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yeah
